New Delhi: Marine biologists in Brazil were surprised on February 22 when they came across a lifeless young humpback whale that had washed ashore on an island in the Amazon river. At this time of year, humpback whales should be thousands of miles away – somewhere near Antarctica.
According to the New York Times, the young whale’s body was found by members of Bicho D’Água, a conservation group, who followed vultures circling a mangrove forest on Marajó Island. According to what government officials told local reporters, the whale had been dead for a few days when it was discovered.
Biologists studied the carcass over the weekend to try and figure out why it died. “We are collecting information, identifying marks on the body, to determine if it was trapped in a net or hit by a boat,” Guardian quoted the president of Bicho D’Água, Renata Emin, as saying. The scientists believe that the whale was separated from its mother not long before it died.
Researchers are also conducting DNA tests to ascertain where the whale came from, CNN reported.
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While Brazil does see a large number of humpback whales every year – in the tens of thousands – they are usually long gone by February. They migrate south for the summer, to feed near Antarctica. This young whale then was close to 6,400 km from where it was supposed to be, according to the NYT.
“This calf probably got separated from its mother, maybe its mother had died, in the southern summer, and then wandered about trying to find food. The idea that it was killed by ingesting plastic would need some evidence first to support it. It seems to me more likely that it simply starved to death. If they do a postmortem examination, we will have a clearer idea,” Peter Evans, the director of the Sea Watch Foundation, told the Guardian.
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According to the Independent, authorities will not be able to move the carcass from where it washed ashore. “It’s very difficult to get there and there’s no way we can send a bulldozer because it would not get through. There is no way to remove it. To get there, we need to cross the swamp,” Dirlene Silva, from the state environment department, was quoted as saying.
CNN reported that the Federal University of Pará’s pathology laboratory is performing a necropsy on the body. The results will be available in about 20 days, the channel reported.
The humpback whale was endangered because of massive whaling operations in the 19th and 20th centuries, but recent conservation efforts have revived the species’ population. However, that doesn’t meant that whales face no threats at all. A bigger population means there is a higher chance of the mammals getting caught in fishing nets or being struck by a ship.
In addition, as The Wire has reported, another threat to humpback whales comes from noise pollution. The mysterious song of the humpback whale – which they use to communicate – is silenced when they stray close to commercial ships.